Something for Sydney and a baby update

Thank you to Laura, Cara's mommy, for this beautiful picture. I love to see Sydney's name. :)

I've been kind of ambivalent about posting about my pregnancy. It was hard for me to read other loss blogs when new pregnancies were announced. But really, this pregnancy is a continuation of my journey. This baby wouldn't be with us if not for Sydney.

I will be 24 weeks pregnant on Sunday the 13th. I had a transvaginal cerclage placed at 15 weeks, on April 13, and it appeared to be just in the nick of time. At that time, my cervix was less than 30 mm and very soft. I've been having cervical length ultrasounds every 2 weeks and my cervical length has been stable at 40-43 mm since 17 weeks. We are so grateful to be this close to viability. I hope to be able to relax a little after it passes, but I don't know if I'm capable of not constantly worrying.

At 17 weeks, we found out that we are having another baby girl! I had mixed feelings on the baby's gender up until we found out, thinking it would be easier to raise a boy than a girl after losing Sydney. But we are all so excited and I can't wait to have another little girl running around. Her name is Kelsey Grace. Kelsey is a name that I really liked and it goes with our pattern for girl names (Hailey, Sydney, Kelsey). Grace is because it is by God's grace that she is here with us.

So far, I've been relatively healthy and Kelsey is doing great. All of the ultrasounds and tests have been nothing but good news. I've been having some blood pressure issues recently and just started medication. I also had to go to L&D last week for some cramping and contractions, which turned out to be caused by a UTI. I'm still working, but after work, I'm mostly supposed to rest. I'm really glad that I haven't had to stop working yet because I'm not sure how we'd manage that financially.

Though I haven't been posting, I'm still reading blogs and thinking of and praying for all of my fellow LBMs.